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Maxwell Grass

Maxwell Grass allows you to quickly and easily and create many types of realistic grasses in your project. Grass is a parametric geometry modifier, which means that it simply 'grows' on your existing Bonzai3d terrain model (or any other objects).

The general workflow for setting up grass through the plugin is outlined below. See sections that follow for details on each step.

Workflow

• 1. Define. Grass Definitions are Grass Definitions are created in the project's Grass s Grass Library.
• 2. Apply. One or more Grass Definitions are applied to any number of objects, via Object Attributes.
• 3. Render. Grass Grass is generated at render time.

Define: Grass Library

The Bonzai3d plugin introductes the concept

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of Grass Definitions, which are defined and stored in

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a Grass Library. To invoke the Grass Library,

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select Extensions> Maxwell Render> Grass, or click on 

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Image Added in the Maxwell Attributes

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pane (

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see Grass Object Attributes, below).

•   New Definition: Create new Grass Definition in the project.
•   Delete Definition: Deletes selected definition in the list.
• Image Removed Image Added File Menu:
  
  • Open: Open Open a Grass Definition file from disk. Definition is added to the Library.
  • Open and Replace: Open Open a Grass Definition file from disk. Currently selected Definition is replaced with the one opened.
  • Save: Save Save a Grass Definition file to disk.

Clicking on any Grass Definition in the list will load its parameters and present them on the right:

• Grass Definition: Name Name of the Definition. Definitions, like materials, can be renamed at any time without severing the link to the objects to which they are applied.
• Material:
  
  • Parent Object: The The grass will inherit the material of the object to which it is applied.
  • Referenced MXM:Select an MXM on disk. If you intend on reusing the grass definition in multiple, unrelated projects, this is best option. (If you load the definition into another project, it will not require a specific Bonzai3d material to already exist.)
  • formZ Bonzai3d Material: The The grass will use the specified Bonzai3d project material. Good for making quick changes to the material.

Descriptions of the remaining parameters may be found here:   Maxwell Grass.

The Grass Library is stored with your project.

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Apply: Grass Object Attributes

To apply a Grass Definition to an object, select the object, Click on the Pick Tool Tool Attributes tab tab, and select select Maxwell Attributes...

The Grass-specific controls appear in the 'Geometry Modifiers' section.

•   Add Definition: Adds an existing  Grass Definition to the object. Select from the resulting list.
•   Remove Definition: Removes Grass Definition from the object. (Does not delete the definition from the project.)
• Image Removed EditImage Added Edit: Edit in the Grass Library.
  
  
• Enabled: May be used to temporarily disable this Definition on the current object.
  
  

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• Grass uses very little storage space. This is good in that a .fmz project with lots of grass will be pretty much the same size as one without (other things being equal).

• Using grass will not affect performance of Bonzai3d during modeling in any way(compared with, say, millions of components).

• Grass can consume a great deal of memory when it is rendered. Fire rendering with a lot of grass on OSX (32-bit) or Windows 32-bit can lead to out-of-memory issues.

• However, rendering in Maxwell Render (standalone renderer) will use all the memory available on your system, so large quantities of grass can be rendered.

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